FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



BABY GROSBEAK 



male baby Grosbeak and a Scarlet Tanager, neither over five 

 days from the shell. The Tanager nest I could not discover. 

 The Grosbeak was in a slender oak sapling in a thicket of grape- 

 vines. The tree was too light to bear my weight, while I was not 

 prepared for field work. To leave them meant for both to be 

 drowned or trampled by the cattle. I carried them home in my 

 hands. That night I read that a young Hawk taken from his 

 coarse nest of sticks and placed in a soft nest would die miserably, 

 so the following morning I took a ladder and went back to the 

 swamp. There had been some woodland tragedy other than 

 the storm. The nest contained one baby, dead and badly abused, 

 so I carefully cut the surrounding vines and brought the cradle 

 home to my birds. Then for ten days, in the midst of my busiest 

 time on this book, a stop every fifteen minutes was made to feed 

 those youngsters a mixture of boiled potato and egg, varying 

 with a little mashed fruit or bread and milk. 



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